EarthLink has really embraced retail. For the last couple of years, they have been putting a package together around MPLS over DSL for PCI Compliance. Now they have added a Managed Wi-Fi service - that they were pimping at the National Retail Federation show (last year). This is one way to tackle a vertical and make a name for yourself (positioning).

This is big for a number of reasons. It is one of the largest investments in a women-owned start-up in Florida. It is early stage money for a Tampa Bay based start-up, which is almost unheard of in this community.

The term Big Data makes me laugh because we live in the information age where we collect a ton of data. People may be pack rats and hoarders IRL (in real life), but digitally we are far worse. We live in a time when photo albums of weddings, children, family are all digital; the entire music collection is a hard drive failure away from missing; and we fill our hard drives to capacity and beyond (1TB external storage!)

I hear the word bantered about a lot especially by media, C-Level execs and government types. This week it was the "Innovation Economy". well, that makes sense since the USA's only lead globally has been in innovation, but the rest of the world is catching up due to this thing called the Internet (an invention of ours, btw).

According to a study reported by Channelomics, "A new report by the Kauffman Foundation, a non-profit economic think tank, finds the number of U.S. technology companies five years or younger has fallen precipitously compared to the peak level in 2001."